Chapter 28
Chapter 28
A cold sweat ran down my back.
‘What’s gotten into her? Don’t tell me she’s “latched on” to something?’
Libel was a textbook “eccentric genius” character.
As was usually the case with characters like that, she was indifferent to everything—until something caught her interest, at which point she would become infinitely obsessive.
And that wasn’t all.
I heard another sound that made my heart sink.
“…I feel the same way.”
Katrinne glared at me as fiercely as if she meant to stab me with a knife, then declared, “I’m going to pass the Rubiness Academy entrance exam, too. Don’t misunderstand. It’s not because of you, Professor. I just want to pass.”
I was alarmed by the determination burning in Katrinne’s eyes.
It was her trait, “Indomitable Will.”
‘You just want to pass, you say, so could you please not manifest a Hero’s trait like that?’
I felt troubled.
If Libel was a “genius,” then Katrinne was a “hero.”
The kind who overcame any hardship that came her way.
I knew how strong those two could become when their resolve caught fire.
They were, after all, the true protagonists.
There was no telling what sort of miracle they might work.
‘At this rate, my plan might fail.’
In truth, I had been feeling more or less at ease.
No matter how much they were the true protagonists, they were still greenhorns. I’d thought I could make them fail without much trouble.
But now, I was starting to worry.
‘I need to come up with a countermeasure. A thorough one.’
Fortunately, I had an opportunity right then.
I left the two of them behind and started walking.
When I reached my destination, I found a plaque hanging there.
—Magic Department Entrance Examination Strategy Meeting.
At this meeting,
I had to make perfect preparations.
Meanwhile, somewhere far away from Rubiness Academy.
It was in a splendid garden.
A breathtakingly handsome man was looking at the flowers.
“Maestro.”
The man turned his gaze toward the speaker.
“It’s been a while. What brings you here?”
“We’ve found traces of the ‘Moon.’”
“Oh? That is welcome news.”
The man’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“Where was it? Where did the Moon appear?”
“At Rubiness Academy. And that’s not all. They say the ‘Sun’ mentioned in the prophecy has also headed to Rubiness Academy.”
“Both the Sun and the Moon, at Rubiness Academy? I didn’t expect that.”
The man spoke of something astonishing.
“Was the Sun’s name Katrinne?”
“According to what our organization has learned, yes. Sun of Katrinne, Moon of Ribel.”
The Sun and the Moon referred to the two true protagonists!
“How convenient. Of all places, it had to be Rubiness Academy. Isn’t that where the Mysterious Star appeared in the Prophetic Celestial Ark?”
“The Omnipotent One, who interpreted the Celestial Trajectory, said there was no particular need to pay attention to that star.”
“Even so, it leaves me uneasy.”
The man folded his arms and furrowed his brow.
“Perhaps we should take this opportunity to deal with the Sun and the Moon.”
“Maestro?”
The subordinate looked startled.
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? Our organization isn’t adequately prepared yet.”
“I’m not suggesting we take action ourselves. Isn’t ‘that being’ already at Rubiness Academy? If we exploit a weakness in the entrance examination, we should be able to accomplish our aims without our organization getting involved.”
The man’s lips curled upward.
“Let’s take this opportunity to offer the people of the world a ‘simple greeting’ as well. A prelude, announcing the future that lies ahead.”
The subordinate swallowed hard.
The man was suggesting that they cause a great Catastrophe at the entrance ceremony, going beyond simply eliminating the Sun and the Moon.
“But…”
“Don’t worry. These are peaceful times. Rubiness Academy will be completely defenseless, without so much as a Territory in place. Unless they’re thoroughly prepared in advance, there’s no way they’ll be able to stop us.”
He was right.
It was the most pathetic of the four academies.
Just look at their entrance examinations: the other academies had such thorough security that there was no opening to exploit.
Only Rubiness Academy had grown so lax that it was full of holes.
“Understood. The Practical Examination will be the best time to carry out our plan, so I’ll complete the mission during the Magic Faculty’s Practical Examination. For the glory of our organization!”
After the subordinate disappeared, the man murmured to himself.
“The Sun and the Moon, huh.”
The gaze of Maestro, the apostle of Ouroboros, sank low.
“I don’t know why I can’t stop thinking about that Mysterious Star.”
And so, an eerie spark, unknown to anyone, began to smolder within Rubiness Academy.
Meanwhile, in the meeting room for the Magic Faculty entrance examination at Rubiness Academy,
an unexpected scene was unfolding.
BANG!!
“…What did you just say, Young Master Ban?”
“Are you serious about what you just said?”
“What an outrageous thing to say?!”
I swallowed hard.
The professors were fixing me with such menacing glares that it seemed they might draw their swords at any moment.
‘Ugh. I suppose that reaction is only natural.’
The reason the professors were so angry was what I had just said.
“You must not have heard me properly. I said that the standard of Rubiness Academy’s entrance examination is utterly pathetic.”
“!!”
That was right.
I had just thrown a bomb at them.
I’d said that the Rubiness Academy entrance examination needed improvement.
‘It can’t be helped. A shoddy examination like the one we have now isn’t enough to handle Katrinne and Libel.’
We had to raise the examination’s difficulty dramatically.
The problem was that there was no way the professors would simply go along with it.
Instead, they were only getting angrier.
“How dare you! What would you know?!”
“You haven’t changed at all since your school days. You still don’t know your place.”
“Hah. To make a wretch like him an examiner for the entrance examination… What on earth is the Director thinking?”
Most of the professors gathered here had witnessed ‘Ban’s’ miserable school days firsthand.
Deep beneath their contemptuous stares lay disdain and loathing for me.
‘I may have managed to accomplish quite a few things lately, but their prejudice runs too deep. That won’t be enough to change their minds.’
I couldn’t find a single person in the conference room who was favorably disposed toward me, even if I searched high and low.
But—
‘It’s fine. This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a situation like this.’
I used to be the Sales King.
I had plenty of enemies. Especially among my colleagues.
My fellow salespeople, who felt threatened by my numbers, would make a show of keeping me in check.
In meetings, they would oppose my ideas no matter what.
‘The circumstances are very different from back then, but the solution is ultimately the same.’
Go straight through.
I had to hit them with facts they couldn’t deny.
They were already full of hostility toward me, so trying to make them like me would be a waste of time.
It would be better to take a forceful stance.
The Black Flame Dragon drew an arrogant expression across my face.
“Am I wrong? Isn’t it true that Rubines has the weakest entrance examination of the Four Great Academies?”
“!!”
“The difficulty of the exam, the quality of the Practical Examination, the security measures in place for similar situations—all of them are beyond comparison with those at the other Three Great Academies.”
The room fell silent.
Because it was true.
Of course, that did not mean they accepted what I said. Not in the slightest.
They all glared at me, grinding their teeth.
The room was on the verge of erupting into shouts when a sharp voice rang out.
“Then, Lord Ban, what improvements do you have in mind?”
‘Professor Alif!’
The Four Great Academies were as vast as university campuses back on Earth, and naturally, they had a great many professors.
Among them were professors who served as the Academy’s backbone: the professors who held administrative posts.
Professor Alif was one of them. He was the professor in charge of student affairs.
He oversaw student life and was responsible for this year’s entrance examination.
“Let’s hear it. If you say anything frivolous, I’ll revoke your qualification to serve as an examiner—and fail you in the professor appointment examination as well.”
His voice was sharp.
He wasn’t making an idle threat.
‘Professor Alif is on the chancellor’s side. He was already looking for any excuse he could find to derail my appointment as a professor.’
Under normal circumstances, I shouldn’t have given him even the slightest opening.
‘But now, I need to use that hostility against him.’
I had to provoke him even further.
That was the only way I could accomplish my goal in this meeting.
The Black Flame Dragon came to my aid.
Though the words were exactly the same, they came out in an irritating voice that got under the listeners’ skin.
“Let me ask you first. What do you professors think is lacking in this Academy’s entrance examination?”
“Well, that…”
“I’ll answer. The problem with the Rubiness Academy entrance examination is that the Practical Examination is far too inadequate. To be frank, it’s embarrassing even to compare it with those at the other Four Great Academies.”
The entrance examination was divided into three stages.
Written, practical, and combat.
There wasn’t much room for distinction in the written or practical stages. All four of the prestigious academies set similar questions.
The problem was the entrance examination’s centerpiece: the combat stage.
Unlike the other prestigious academies, each of which administered a distinctive combat examination, Rubiness Academy’s was bland in the extreme.
“You’re talking nonsense. How do you propose we improve the combat examination? We can’t exactly send the applicants out into a crime-ridden part of the Slum.”
He had a point.
The Rubiness Academy’s combat examination was inadequate because of its surroundings.
Unlike the other academies, situated near the Demon Realm, a conflict zone, or an area plagued by Mana Distortion, Rubiness was right in the middle of a bustling city.
Of course, the Academy’s grounds were as large as those of a decent-sized provincial city, but most of the land was a Sealed Area, off-limits to everyone.
All they did was have the applicants fight a few Lower Rank Monsters with illusion magic inside the Artificial Dungeon.
“The professors should step in.”
“…What?”
“Not just the illusory monsters. The professors themselves should enter the Artificial Dungeon and face the students. That would allow us to assess them much more properly—and it would be safer, too.”
The conference room fell silent.
It was a reasonable proposal.
A simple solution that could address the difficulty, the quality of the examination, the accuracy of the evaluations, and the students’ safety all at once.
Even so, none of them seemed willing to nod.
“Hmm. I can’t say it’s a bad idea, but… I’m rather short on time.”
“I’ve got an urgent presentation to prepare for at a conference myself…”
Every one of them discreetly avoided my gaze.
Of course they did.
For one thing, it would be a bother for those dignified professors, who preferred to sit on their behinds, to take action themselves.
‘And they’re afraid of what might happen if they fail a student of high birth.’
There was a reason they had never held an examination like this before.
They were worried that if they tested the children of high-ranking nobles and failed them, they might incur their resentment.
Professor Alif gave a little cough.
“Ban, for something you came up with, it isn’t a bad idea. But all the professors are busy with other matters, and we’re short-handed. Let’s come up with another solution…”
“I can’t imagine what could be more important than the examination of new students who will become the pillars of the Academy.”
“……”
“Are you just making excuses to avoid it?”
The professors whose weak point I had hit clenched their lips tightly.
I shook my head, as if I felt sorry for them.
“I understand. My proposal may have been too radical. Then, how about this?”
“……??”
“As the temporary examiner, I’ll take on the role of facing the students as an experiment. And if anything goes wrong, I’ll take full responsibility.”
The professors all looked at one another in surprise.
It wasn’t a bad proposal.
They wouldn’t have to step in, and I would be responsible for everything.
Especially for Professor Alif, who was trying by any means possible to get rid of me, it was a tempting offer.
But.
“However, I have one condition.”
I raised the corners of my mouth and stated what I had ultimately wanted from this meeting.
“Give me the authority to intervene in how the Practical Examination is conducted.”
“!!”
That was it.
This was my goal all along.
I would shape the examination to suit my wishes and make it produce the result I wanted.